Mark Cavendish has taken overall victory in the Tour of Dubai event, after the Isle of Man rider took the decisive fourth stage on the roads of the country yesterday, by utilising his customary sprint finish. It was his second stage win of the week and sets him up nicely for the challenges to come over the season, including the prestigious Tour de France.

After the completion of three of the four stages around the most populated emirate in the United Arab Emirates, the 29-year-old British speedster had slipped four seconds behind John Degenkolb, after the German took the third stage on an uphill finish.

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Cavendish came into day four knowing that the stage was more to his liking, with every expectation that it would come down to one of his trademark bunch sprints at the end. As if going to script, that is precisely how the race mapped out, and the Manx man was delighted to cross the line first to gain the time bonus of ten seconds he needed for overall victory. His stage time for the 123km the riders covered on the day was two hours, 37 minutes and 15 seconds, but what mattered most was that he got his bike over the line just ahead of Elia Viviani for Team Sky and Juan Jose Lobato for Movistar, both of whom were given the same time as 'Cav'.

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Degenkolb trailed in ninth on the stage, but only slipped down to second in the overall standings, six seconds down on the Brit. The Spaniard Lobato was rewarded for his fine finish with third place overall.

Further down the field was the man who took victory in Paris last year, Vincenzo Nibali, who steered well clear of the racing at the front of the peloton to coast through the line and take 39th spot overall for the week. His gap behind 'Cav' was approaching 90 seconds for the four days of toil in the saddle, but he clearly wasn't too concerned, as he continued his preparations for the Tour of Qatar.

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Fittingly for the man walking tallest in Dubai after his victory, the race finished at the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. A happy Cavendish was pleased with the victory and also with the efforts of his fellow Etixx-QuickStep riders, who set him up perfectly for the sprint finish. When interviewed afterwards he said: "To win here is pretty special" and added "I'm super happy with our lads." He was, however, slightly scathing about the lack of contribution from the other teams to the race during the week, feeling that his team had borne the brunt of the workload across its duration.

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